My Little Town
by mistralcat
Summary: One night in Rome, Dawn has a dream about Angel and Spike in the alley outside of the Hyperion. She wakes determined to tell Buffy, but soon realizes that there's much more to her dream than meets the eye...
1. Chapter 1

Dawn found herself in an elegantly decorated sitting room, looking at Wesley Wyndham-Pryce. She thought it was Wesley, anyway - Faith had told her that he'd changed since his days in Sunnydale, but she had a hard time believing he'd changed _that_ much. He had a ball of fire in one hand, and he was chanting, though she couldn't understand what he was saying. She opened her mouth to say something, and then found herself in a campaign office, watching a black man who looked vaguely familiar battle a room full of vampires. And then another room, where a green-skinned demon in a fedora looked sadly down at a man he'd just shot. And then somewhere else, where a hooded being crouched over a baby's crib, making her heart sing for some reason. And then in an alleyway somewhere, where a woman with blue hair stared down several terrified-looking demons in a car. And then the foyer of an office building, where Angel and a boy who Dawn somehow knew was his son, even though he looked nothing like him, and it was impossible, anyway, fought something that looked human, but couldn't possibly have been.

And, last, in another alley. Angel was there, without the son, and the black man and the blue woman, and...Spike! Dawn's heart sang again, but then she saw what they were fighting in that alley, and then she woke up.

She sat up in bed, gasping and trying to keep hold of every detail in her dream, before she realized two things. One was that she didn't have to try - she remembered everything. And the other was that her head felt like it was going to split open.

She stumbled into the bathroom and fumbled for the Advil without turning on the light. She knew she had to wake up Buffy and tell her what she'd just seen - somehow, she knew it hadn't been just a dream - but she didn't feel up to facing the Immortal Doofus with such a horrible headache.

After a few minutes, the headache subsided enough for Dawn to be able to make her way into the kitchen, though she still winced at the bright light and had to squint to see Buffy sitting at the table, the phone at her ear and an exasperated look on her face.

"Faith, I know all this," she said, after a few minutes during which Dawn just watched her nod and roll her eyes. "I had the exact same dream, and I was about to call Giles when...yes, of course I'm going to call Giles. He needs to...I know he wouldn't leave Dana with Angel, but that was different. She's a Slayer...This _is_ different, Faith. It was a Slayer dream, and that means we need to do something...Yes, even Giles will see that."

A Slayer dream. But Dawn had never had a Slayer dream before - and she knew she wasn't a Slayer. If both Buffy and Faith had had the same dream, though...maybe it had just seeped over into her dreams, too. And maybe that was why her head hurt so much - she wasn't supposed to have gotten the dream at all.

Buffy was still talking. "Faith, I promise you that I will be in L.A. as soon as I can. Yes, even if Giles doesn't want me to go. Angel's in trouble - a lot of trouble -"

Dawn's cell phone went off, making her jump and Buffy look around, her eyebrows raised. She smiled at Dawn, but then went back to her conversation with Faith, and Dawn scrabbled in her jacket pockets for her cell phone.

"Dawnie?" It was Willow. "I'm really sorry to wake you, but I tried the apartment phone, and it's been busy for so long, and I really need to talk to Buffy. Well, it's really Kennedy who needs to - all right, sweetie, I know you don't need to - anyway, is she there, Dawnie?"

Dawn heroically refrained from commenting on Willow's aside to Kennedy. "She's on the phone with Faith," she said instead. "They both had the same Slayer dream. I'm assuming Kennedy did, too?"

"They all had the same one?" Willow said. "That explains...I mean, I thought it was odd that Kennedy would have a Slayer dream about Angel - she barely knows him. Maybe it's a good thing Buffy isn't really Slaying much these days, so she was asleep at the same time as Faith and Kennedy. Oh, and the only one of the others Kennedy described that I definitely recognized was Wesley, though maybe Gunn and Lorne...though I can't imagine Lorne -"

"So that _was_ Wesley?" Dawn asked to stop Willow before she really got up a head of steam. Then, she wished she hadn't, so she added, "I mean, yeah, it seems like everyone's dreaming the same thing. That means it's important, right?"

"I would think so," Willow said. "What does Buffy say?"

Dawn listened to what Buffy was saying.

"Yes, Faith, I do think you should go now. I still need to talk to Giles, and then I need to get a flight - and we don't know when all of this is going to happen. You might be the only help that gets to Angel in time."

"She thinks it's really important," Dawn said to Willow. "She just told Faith to get to L.A. as soon as she can, and she's going to call Giles and then head over there, too."

"Okay," Willow said. "We'll look into getting a flight, too. If Angel's really facing what Kennedy told me he was, he's going to need all the help he can get. Ask Buffy to call me when she gets a chance, okay? Thanks, Dawnie."

Dawn hung up, thinking that for once it was a good thing that ever since Buffy had started dating the Immortal Prat, she'd slacked off on the Slayage. Buffy would have been extremely hurt if everyone else had had a Slayer dream about Angel, and she hadn't.

"Yes, Faith, I do want you to go," Buffy said, rolling her eyes again. "We do trust you, and Angel might even rather see you than me, anyway...yes, I really mean that...Faith. The longer you talk to me, the longer it will take you to get to Angel. And the longer it will be before I can talk to Giles and then get to Angel. Okay. Yes. Yes. Okay. I'll see you there." She hit disconnect on the phone and then put her head down on the table. "I can't believe I'm saying this," she said, "but I want the old Faith back. Only without the people-stabbing, boyfriend-stealing badness."

"I know," Dawn said, sitting down opposite her sister. "What happened to her?"

"What didn't?" Buffy said. "I guess it all just got to be too much."

"Plus, there's Robin," Dawn said, trying not to sound nasty. "He's so perfect, he'd make anyone lose confidence."

"Dawn."

"Well, he would," Dawn said. "I just don't get it. Faith never used to like the type of guy who would always tell her what to do."  
"Skipping over the part where you know what type of guys Faith used to like, her weirdness is not what's important right now. I need to call Giles."

Without lifting her head from the table, she dialled Giles's number with one thumb, then held the phone up to her ear. He took a long time to answer - hopefully because he was asleep - so Dawn had time to wonder about Spike. Neither Buffy nor Willow had mentioned him, which could mean they hadn't seen him, or could mean that they were trying to spare her feelings by not mentioning him. Probably the latter, since Dawn couldn't imagine why she'd see something in a Slayer dream that Slayers wouldn't. She wished they'd stop treating her like a baby.

"Giles," Buffy said finally. "Something's happening to Angel, and I know you don't trust him, but Faith and I think that since we're getting Slayer dreams about him, he must be good again, and - oh. You do? You have? You will? All right, I'll meet you there."

"We'll meet you there," Dawn said, earning herself a glare. She glared right back. Aside from any other considerations, Buffy was not going to leave her alone with the Immortal Git. She just was not.

Buffy talked a little while longer with Giles, about meeting places and times, and things like that. He'd already reserved plane tickets for Buffy and Dawn, proving that he knew Dawn pretty well. She could tell, though, that Buffy really wanted to get off the phone and get to L.A. as fast as she could. Or faster. And while she couldn't be happier at this evidence that her sister's infatuation with the Immortal Bupkiss wasn't as strong as she'd thought, she couldn't help wondering if it really was Angel Buffy was rushing to save. They'd never really talked about Buffy's relationship with Spike - after Sunnydale, they hadn't really talked about much serious at all - but it didn't really matter. No matter what else Buffy felt, Dawn knew guilt was in there somewhere. Guilt about leaving Spike to close the Hellmouth alone. To burn alive - well, undead. However Spike had managed to survive that, it meant Buffy had another chance. And if she could save him this time...

"Okay," Buffy said as she hung up. "If you're coming, quick packing would definitely be of the good. And light - I don't want to have to wait at the baggage -"

"_Cara mia_?"

Dawn cringed at the Immortal Prat's voice and cringed even more when she saw him emerge from Buffy's bedroom, black silk dressing gown half-tied over his perfect abs. She fixed her eyes on her sister, fully expecting to see the usual simper on her face. And she did see it start to form, but then Buffy's eyes narrowed.

"Yes?" she said, not turning towards him. She was staring back at Dawn now, and Dawn held her gaze, not sure why it was important, but very sure that it was.

"Aren't you coming back to bed, _amore mio_?"

Dawn felt her eyes rolling and was shocked to see Buffy's following suit.

"Not right now," Buffy said, still looking at Dawn. "Angel's in trouble, and we need to get to L.A. as soon as we can."  
"Darling, don't be ridiculous. Angelus and William the Bloody can take care of themselves. The bed is cold without you."

Now, Buffy looked at him. Glared at him. That old cliché about if looks could kill came to mind.

"You knew Spike was alive? How? And why didn't you tell me?"

_Or me_, Dawn thought, but she didn't say it out loud. Telling her about Spike would have entailed talking to her, and the Immortal Dweeb never did that if he could help it.

He shrugged, as though he'd already dismissed Buffy's questions from his mind.

"Come back to bed," he said.

Buffy glared at him for another moment, and then turned her back on him.

"Dawn, I leave for the airport in twenty minutes. If you're ready then, you can come. If not, I will kill you, and then you can come."

"For Spike, I'll be ready," Dawn said, and just had time to see Buffy's grin before she was in her bedroom, throwing things into her overnight bag.

When she came back out into the kitchen, bag bulging, the Immortal Stupidhead was gone. Really gone - gone from their lives - she could feel it. She put her bag down on the floor and hugged Buffy, who was sitting in a chair as though she wasn't sure how to move. She didn't know what to say, though, and the minutes were ticking away.

"Do you need me to help you pack?" she asked.

Buffy shook her head. "I'm not going to take anything," she said. Dawn just gaped at her, and she added, "It's all tainted. By him."

"Oh," Dawn said, and thought about that. "Well, you'd better hope Willow has learned some better fashion sense down in Brazil, because my stuff won't fit."

Buffy choked, like she wanted to laugh but couldn't quite remember how.

"C'mon," Dawn said. "Let's go save some vampire butt."


	2. Chapter 2

Dawn slept quite a bit on the plane. She knew she shouldn't - she should be supporto-sister - but she couldn't help it. Flying always made her sleepy, and the headache she still couldn't quite shake just made it worse. She didn't sleep well, though - she defied anyone of more than her sister's tiny stature to sleep well on a plane - and every time she stirred, she saw Buffy just sitting in her seat and staring straight ahead of herself. On second thought, Dawn really had no idea what to say to her, so maybe sleep wasn't such a bad idea.

When they reached LAX, though, Buffy came bounding out of her stupor. She managed to get them off the plane right after the first class passengers, and was outside on the curb looking for Giles almost before Dawn had time to wake up.

"B! Dawn!"

Dawn turned to see Faith standing a little way away, turned back to realize Buffy had already started towards her, and followed. After the mad dash through the airport, she wasn't about to run anymore, so she had plenty of time to notice that Faith, underneath her usual Faith bravado, had much the same look Buffy had sported on the plane - like she wasn't quite sure what had happened to her or why. Dawn wasn't sure on which Slayer it looked stranger, but she did know that she didn't like it, on either of them.

"Where's Robin?" Buffy was asking when Dawn reached them, which she could have told her was a bad idea, and she wasn't surprised to see Faith's studiously nonchalant shrug.

"Not coming," she said. "C'mon, I've got the wheels - Giles and Will are back at the motel."

"Why?" Buffy asked. "Why aren't we going to that law firm? The hearty one."

"Wolfram and Hart," Faith said, turning and starting to walk so quickly Dawn almost had to jog to keep up. "Giles still doesn't trust them, even if Angel has switched sides again, so we're trying to get in touch with him without letting them in on it. We tried just calling him there, but Harmony answered, and Willow dropped the phone."

"Harmony?" Dawn and Buffy said at the same time.

"Yeah. Seems she's Angel's secretary, or executive assistant, or something. Kennedy called back, since Harmony wouldn't recognize her voice, but all she'd say was that Angel was out of the office and would be for the rest of the day. She sounded...pissed about it, Kennedy said."

"That's odd," Dawn said. She couldn't quite picture Harmony as a secretary. Though she was sure unicorn desk ornaments would figure in it prominently.

"Yeah," Faith said. She stopped at one of those little SUVs that try to pretend they're not SUVs and clicked open the back door. "The Watcher-mobile, L.A. branch. Everybody in." She didn't wait for them before sliding behind the steering wheel and putting on her seatbelt. Dawn reflected that maybe Robin hadn't been all bad for her.

"Giles wasn't sure if Harmony was in on whatever's goin' down, so he didn't want to tell her we're here. So we got nothing. Will's trying a locator spell."

"On Angel?" Buffy asked. She was gripping the handle of the passenger door pretty tightly, though Dawn personally thought Faith was a much better driver than Buffy was.

"On Angel, on Wesley, on Fred -"

"Who's Fred?" Dawn asked, enjoying the wind rushing through her hair after all that time on the plane.

"She's the brain," Faith said, which made no sense to Dawn. "Not sure what's with the blue look, but whatever."

"Any results yet?" Buffy asked.

"She was just gettin' started when I left," Faith said, but Dawn could hear the hesitation in her voice. Buffy must have, too, because she turned and glared at her, but just then they pulled into the motel parking lot, and both Summers sisters were so out of breath by the time the car was parked, the subject was dropped. They'd find out in a minute or two, anyway.

"We're back," Faith called as she swung open the door, which was rather unnecessary, Dawn thought. The room wasn't that big - even if Willow had been in a trance, she must have noticed the three of them stomping in. She wasn't, anyway.

"I know it doesn't make sense, Giles, but it's what I'm seeing," Willow was saying. She was sitting on the floor at the foot of the bed, and she spared a small smile for Buffy and Dawn, but then turned back to Giles, who barely glanced at them. "They're spread out all over the city, and I don't know why. Angel's even in a coffee shop - and has been there for quite some time - which makes no sense at all."

"Maybe whatever is going to happen won't be today," Kennedy said. She was stretched out, taking up all of the bed and playing with Willow's hair.

"How urgent did the Slayer dream feel?" Giles asked.

"Really urgent," Kennedy, Buffy, Faith, and Dawn all said. Dawn then bit her tongue and looked around to see if anyone had noticed her slip. Faith was looking oddly at her, but then she shrugged and turned back to Giles.

"It's today, G-man, I know it is," she said. "You know I don't usually hold with this Slayer dream crap, but this one...I know."

"Me, too," Buffy said. She dropped her bag on the floor and crossed her arms over her chest.

Giles did smile at her at that, and then turned back to Kennedy. Kennedy looked down at her fingers playing with Willow's hair and shrugged, which Giles seemed to take as an assent.

"So, whatever it is that's going to happen will be today, but the people you saw in your Slayer dreams aren't all in one place -"

"They weren't, anyway," Faith said. She hunkered down on her heels and leaned forward, her elbows on her knees. "In the first part of the dream, I mean. They were in different places."

"But they were all together at the end?" Giles aksed, and Faith and Buffy nodded. "Then we should concentrate our efforts on discovering that locality. Did it look familiar to anyone?"

"It's L.A. Why would any of us recognize it?" Kennedy asked.

"Since Buffy and Dawn lived in L.A. for many years, and Faith has visited Angel several times, it isn't beyond the realm of possibility that one of them might recognize the location," Giles said in his mildest tone. Dawn bit back a snort of laughter; at least he wasn't polishing his glasses at Kennedy.

"The Hyperion," Faith said, her eyes fixed on the floor in front of her. "I think it was the alleyway outside the hotel."

"Are you certain?" Giles asked, at his most gentle.

"No," Faith said, still studying the floor. "It's L.A. - lots of alleys look rather similar." Her Boston accent sounded very strong on those last words. "But I think so."

"It makes sense, doesn't it?" Dawn said. "If Angel's breaking away from Wolfram and Hart, he might want to go back to where he came from. From whence he came? Help me out here, Giles."

"Home ground," Buffy said. "Yeah, I get that. Anyway, it's the best we've got. Let's go."

"Just like that?" Kennedy asked. "We don't even know -"

But no one was listening. Even Willow didn't wait for her to finish before she was out the door. Dawn held the door for Kennedy, but Kennedy just sneered as she swept by her. Dawn shrugged. She didn't miss the look Willow gave her girlfriend as she climbed into the SUV. They were practically sitting on top of each other to make room for everyone, but they looked farther apart than Dawn had ever seen them.

Of course, she ended up thinking Kennedy might have had a point when they'd waited for hours in an L.A. alley with no sign of Angel or anyone else. All three of the Slayers had taken their turns on recon, and they all reported that everything was quiet in the neighborhood. They didn't even find any garden-variety vamps, which said a lot about Angel's reputation, since it had been almost a year since his group had been at the Hyperion.

And then it started raining. Pouring, actually. And out of nowhere - Dawn hadn't quite been able to see the stars before it started, but then, it was L.A. All the same, it had been a clear, calm night, and then the skies opened.

"Good lord," Giles said, and Faith woke from a doze with a "Whazzat?"

"Supernatural, you think?" Dawn asked.

"If it is, it's not a small-time thing," Willow said. "I can't see any indications - oh."

"Oh?" Buffy said, trying to look where Willow was looking. "Indications oh?"

"Indications yes," Willow said, and plunged out into the downpour.

The rest of them piled out of the SUV and tore after her, following her as she ran around the hotel.

To find Angel and company squaring off against a raging horde of demons.

"Fuck," Faith said. "We were in the wrong alley."

Before the words were even out of her mouth, Buffy and Kennedy plunged into the melée. Dawn expected Faith to follow suit, but instead, Faith grabbed her upper arm and dragged her over to where the black man she'd seen in the Slayer dream lay on the ground, bleeding from more wounds than she could count.

"Dawn, this is Gunn," Faith said. "Stop him from dying, would ya?" And then she was gone, joining in the dance of Slayers and demons.

Dawn dropped down onto her knees beside Gunn and tried to figure out which of his wounds needed staunching the most. She quickly realized that the hooded sweatshirt he had pressed to his side wouldn't cut it and took off her sweater. It was already sodden from the rain, and she was left shivering in just her tank top, but it was the best she could do. She gently pried away his hand from where it had been pressed to his side, and he finally opened his eyes.

"Damn," he said. "I'd think I was in heaven, except I don't think it rains there."

Dawn smiled at him, glad to see more in his eyes than dull pain. That was there, too, of course.

"Ah," she said. "Indulging in the time-honored tradition of flirting with the nurse."

"I'm a traditionalist," he said. His eyes wandered from her face to the battle behind her and widened. Dawn looked around - still holding her sweater to the wound in his side - and felt her heart swell. She was quite sure that neither Angel nor Spike had been expecting Buffy or the other Slayers, but all of them were now moving around and among each other, fighting the demon horde in what looked more like a well-choreographed ballet than a battle. Well, a ballet with rivers of blood flowing and spurting all over the stage. Angel and Spike were even fighting a dragon. It was down on the ground and didn't seem to be producing more than short bursts of fire that the two vampires easily dodged, but the sight of it reminded Dawn too much of the awful day Buffy had died. She looked around for Willow and Giles, who had combined to defeat that dragon, and saw them working together again, though they seemed to be focusing on the small flying demons, blasting them out of the sky and keeping them from bothering the fighters on the ground too much.

"Damn," Gunn said again. "That's some major mojo."

"Yeah," Dawn said. "Willow's amazing - and safe," she hastened to add. "Giles is anchoring her."

"That's Willow?" Gunn asked. He raised his head and squinted. "Didn't she have red hair?"

Dawn squinted, too. It was hard to see clearly through the dark and the rain, but one of the dragon's dying blasts of flame showed her that Willow's hair was indeed white. She bit back a sigh of relief.

"Just when she's doing really big magic," she said. "I mean, it's red most of the time."

In fact, it was fading back to red now. Dawn could tell, because Willow half-collapsed into Giles, and he picked her up and carried her towards where they were crouching. They'd taken care of all the flying demons and the dragon, and it looked like the fighter-types could take care of what was left.

"She'll be all right, right?" she asked as Giles approached. Willow's tendency to overextend herself hadn't abated any, she was just more ready to admit it. Usually.

"She'll be fine," Giles said, laying her gently down on the ground. "I made certain she didn't push herself too far. I do wish she didn't have to do all of the..." He tilted his head to one side, fumbling for a word.

"Heavy lifting?" Dawn said.

"Y-yes," Giles said. "That's one way of putting it." He looked back over his shoulder at the fight. Dawn could tell he was worried about his Slayers, but she needed him, too.

"Giles, this is Gunn," she said. "I think he might be bleeding to death."

"No way," Gunn said, though his eyes were closed and his skin looked ashen. "I will not be killed by a campaign office full of vamps."

Dawn exchanged a confused look with Giles, and then realized that that's what she'd seen Gunn doing in the Slayer dream - fighting vampires. She didn't say anything, though, because she didn't want Giles to start worrying about why she'd tapped into a Slayer dream. They had enough things to worry about right now.

"Dawnie?"

Dawn let Giles take over the staunching of Gunn's side wound and turned towards Willow.

"How are we doing?"

Dawn was cold and wet, and Willow was drained, but she knew that wasn't what she meant. She looked around at the battle again to realize that it was almost over. Faith and Kennedy were fighting one last, determined demon with a head full of tentacles, but Buffy, Angel and Spike were simply standing there, staring at each other. The blue girl - Fred? - stood nearby, studying all of them with her head tilted to one side.

"We won," she told Willow. "How cool is that?"


	3. Chapter 3

Dawn awoke the next morning not quite sure where she was. It wasn't her bedroom in the flat in Rome...then she sneezed and remembered. She was in L.A., in one of the hundreds of rooms in Angel's rather dusty hotel. And how weird was that - Angel owning a hotel? She'd heard about it, of course, but seeing it for herself was something else. Talk about needing space.

She got out of bed and padded over to where she'd left her suitcase. She hadn't even brushed her teeth before falling into bed the night before, and she felt gross. One hot shower and thorough cleaning-up, and she felt more human again. Not quite ready to face the morning and the motley crew now inhabiting the hotel, but she knew she didn't have a choice about that. And she did wonder what Buffy was wearing. The clothes she'd arrived in had been covered in demon slime the last time Dawn had seen her, and she couldn't wait to see if Buffy had raided Willow's or Faith's suitcase.

A little of both, it turned out. Buffy was wearing black leather pants and a shirt Faith wouldn't have been caught dead in. On anyone else, the outfit would have looked ridiculous, but Buffy managed to carry it off. She didn't like it, though.

"I don't see why I can't go shopping," she was saying as Dawn walked down the stairs into the lobby. "I have the money, and I really hope you're not saying I can't take care of myself."

"I know you can take care of yourself, Buffy -" Angel said.

"Then it's settled -"

"Against a normal foe. This is Wolfram and Hart. The Senior Partners. They're more than you've ever faced before."

"Hello, I've faced a hellgod," Buffy said.

"And died," Angel said.

"Ouch," Faith said, perched on the front desk, and Buffy threw her a glare.

"Whatever," she said. "They threw everything they had at us last night, and we kicked their butts. They're gone, Angel."

"They're not gone," Angel said. "They'll never be gone."

Dawn headed over to Faith. "They been at it for long?" she asked.

"Just feels that way," Faith said.

"Who do you think will win?"

"B," Faith said without hesitation. "Never try to stand between B and shopping."

"I heard that," Buffy and Angel both said.

"Then settle it," Dawn said. "I'm having flashbacks."

"Hey," Angel said, but Buffy grinned at her.

"You want to come shopping, Dawn?" she asked. She seemed to be taking for granted that she'd won the argument.

Dawn thought about it. "Is food involved?" she asked.

"Giles is out getting donuts," Faith said.

"Oo, donuts," Dawn said.

"You're giving up shopping for donuts?" Buffy said, staring at her. "I can do donuts."

"Yeah," Dawn said, "but you can't make L.A. Rome. Everything is going to be three months old."

Buffy's face fell. "Oh."

"Hey, I'm not the one who left all her clothes behind," Dawn said. She tried very hard not to sound smug, but it really didn't work.

"Okay, you're enjoying yourself just a little too much right now," Buffy said, but her glare wasn't real. "I'm still your big sister."

"And as your little sister, I'm contractually obligated to tell you that you look ridiculous. Where did Willow get that shirt, anyway?"

"Rio, apparently," Buffy said, holding it away from herself and gazing down at it in bewilderment.

"Huh," Faith said. "I thought the Brazillians had more style."

"Trust Willow to find the -" Buffy's eyes suddenly widened "- most interesting clothes in the city."

"There's a story behind that shirt," Willow said, and Dawn turned to see her coming down the stairs and smiling at Buffy. Kennedy, who was supporting her as she made the descent, was glaring instead of smiling. "It involves a parade and several bananas, plus a strange demon that shot glitter out of its ears - at least, we think they were its ears...and you don't want to hear it right now." She sat down on the weird pouf-shaped sofa that stood in the middle of the lobby. Angel, who had collapsed there after he'd lost the argument with Buffy, didn't even blink. "It's a sentimental shirt."

"That glitter cut like glass shards," Kennedy said.

"I'm glad you feel sentimental about the shirt, Will," Buffy said. "And I'll give it back to you as soon as I find something more me to wear."

She didn't even look at Kennedy as she headed towards the door, though she touched Willow on the shoulder as she passed her. When she reached the door, she almost bumped into Giles.

"You're eagerly awaited," she said, and headed out into the sunshine.

"You don't want donuts?" Giles called after her. "I got jelly."

"She's going shopping, G-man," Faith said, hopping down off the desk and relieving him of several boxes of donuts. "I'll take a jelly, though."

"Just save one for me, and don't call me that."

"How's Gunn?" Dawn asked through a mouthful of powdered creme. "I must have had monster jet lag, 'cause I don't really remember anything after we came in here last night."

"Spike and Illyria took him to the hospital," Angel said. "Spike called about an hour ago - he's still in the ICU. They're going to stay until they know for certain he'll be all right. It would have been close, anyway, but...I don't think it would have been so bad if one of the wounds hadn't been right where Wes shot him."

"W-Wesley shot Gunn?" Giles said. He had a small blob of jelly on his upper lip. "Wesley Wyndham-Pryce? On purpose? Is that why he's not with you anymore?"

"Wesley's dead," Angel said, looking as hard as Dawn had ever seen him. "He died killing a member of the Circle of the Black Thorn."

"Good Lord," Giles said.

"Wesley's dead?" Faith said. She put down her donut and slumped against the desk. "Damn."

"Why would Wesley shoot Gunn?" Willow asked. "I mean, he said he'd gone to a dark place, but still..."

"Gunn did something that led to Fred's death," Angel said. "And Wesley..."

"Wait a minute, Fred was right here last night. I mean, yeah, she was blue, and I didn't know she could fight like that, but it was Fred," Willow said. She stopped and looked uncertain. "Wasn't it?"

"No, that was Illyria," Angel said. He slumped down into the pouf and assumed full-on brood position. "Illyria was -"

"An ancient god-king," Giles said. "A member of the original race of demons, who ruled the earth prior to the advent of mankind." He took off his glasses, polished them, and put them back on, while the rest of them watched. "I feel the need to quote Xander: How? What? How?"

"That's more or less correct," Angel said. He glared at Giles, but it was a tired glare. "I do wish you'd told me that when I called you for help...anyway, some of Illyria's acolytes managed to get it out of the Deeper Well and into Fred." He leaned forward with his elbows on his knees and spoke to a spot on the floor some distance in front of him. "It ate her from the inside out. She died...horribly and in great pain. Her soul is just...gone. And then we had Illyria, who could kill us all without breathing hard. In fact," he added, looking up and meeting Giles' eyes, "she did kill us all. But then something happened with the timeline -"

"'Cause that always goes well," Dawn said.

Angel looked even more pained, then shook his head. "Actually, this time it did - it let us get through to her before she killed us. Wes was able to syphon off most of her power before she exploded. Which would have taken out the greater L.A. area, at the very least."

"Where'd he put it?" Willow asked. She'd been looking shaken from all of Angel's revelations, but she perked up at that.

"A pocket dimension," Angel said. His mouth continued to move after that, but Dawn couldn't hear what he was saying. She looked around to see if anyone else was having the same trouble, but then was hit with a pain so intense and blinding that she gripped her head in panic and fell over. She could vaguely feel someone's hands supporting her and worried voices all around, but all she could see were strange, disjointed images flashing behind her eyes, and all she could do was try to endure the pain.

It finally and slowly began to subside, and the first thing she saw when she could open her eyes was a pad of paper and a pen. She squinted against the blinding white light reflected off the paper and saw that Angel was the one holding it out to her, his expression a mix of concern, understanding, and...elation? She thought that rather odd, but was also finding it difficult to think, due to the still mind-numbing pain.

"What did you see?" Angel asked, his voice sounding much too loud and also more hopeful than the question seemed to warrant.

"What?" she asked, feeling exceptionally stupid.

"The vision," Angel said. "What did you see?"

"That was a vision?" Kennedy said. "It looked more like she was having a seizure."

"Hush, sweetie," Willow said, and Dawn could have kissed her.

"It did look painful," Faith said, and Dawn realized that she was the one who was holding her, and that she must have prevented her from falling off the desk, since she wasn't on the floor and the only pain was in her head. "Why would a vision hurt so much?"

"Angel, why do you think Dawn had a vision?" Giles asked.

Angel ignored them all.

"Dawn," he said, sounding his most serious now, though the elation was still lurking. "It's very important that you tell me what you saw. It's probably a matter of life or death."

"Isn't it always?" Faith said.

"Yeah," Dawn said to both of them. "It is. There's something hatching...underground...in a cellar." She put both hands over her eyes and tried to focus through the pain. "514 North Pine. It's purple."

"The hatching demon?" Giles asked.

Dawn wanted to glare at him, but it would have hurt too much. "The _house_," she said.

"Shouldn't be hard to find," Angel said. "Faith, Kennedy, you're with me." He headed towards the interior of the hotel, only stopping when he realized neither Slayer was following him. "Aren't you coming?"

"Maybe if you said what's going on," Faith said.

Angel put his hands on his hips. "Dawn had a vision of something bad happening. I need to stop it. I can do that better if I have Slayer back-up. What more do you need to know?"

"Back-up?" Kennedy said.

"To begin with," Giles said, "how do you know that was a vision? It's clear that Dawn saw something, but what makes you think you know what it is?"

"Because it looked just like Doyle's and Cordelia's," Angel said. "Look, Giles, I don't have time for this. I'll explain everything when I get back, but now I need to stop this thing from hatching or kill it if I don't get there in time. Faith, Kennedy, come or not - it's up to you."

"Giles?" Faith said. Dawn managed to open her eyes and saw her looking at Giles with her eyebrows raised. She clearly wanted to help Angel, but just as clearly, she'd stay where she was if that's what Giles thought was best. Dawn wanted to scream at her to grow her spine back, but that would have hurt too much.

"Oh, very well," Giles said. "Willow and I will look after Dawn. We _will_ discuss this when you three return, however."

Angel actually rolled his eyes at him before leaving, which surprised Dawn. He'd always treated Giles with respect before, at least as far as she remembered. And surely any resentment at the mistrust shown him when he'd worked for Wolfram and Hart would have disappeared after they'd come so spectacularly to his rescue.

"Dawnie, what can I get you?" Willow asked. She moved to take the place supporting Dawn that Faith had vacated.

"Just a buffered analgesic," Dawn said. "Or six."

"Oh, honey, Xander would be so proud of you - geeking through your pain."

"Actually, that one's from Andrew," Dawn said. She sat up straighter and rubbed the back of her neck. "He kept trying to get me to help with that dumb game that went nowhere. And it didn't even have any pictures."

"Watch it, buster," Willow said. "That game's a classic."

Dawn rolled her eyes, which amazingly didn't hurt much.

"What did it look like?" Giles asked.

"I told you," Dawn said, still rubbing her neck. "It's a really old game - it didn't look like anything."

Giles gave her his patented exasperated look. "The demon, Dawn," he said. "What did the hatching demon look like?"

"Oh," Dawn said. She hopped off the desk. "Time to hit the books?"

"Oo," Willow said, standing up straighter. "Research time?"

Giles studied them for a moment, then smiled down at his shoes. Willow nudged Dawn, and they shared a grin before he looked back up.

"Only if you're up to it, Dawn," he said.

"I'm okay," Dawn said, and she really was. "One hundred percent pain free."

"Indeed?" Giles said and looked at her keenly. But then he was off and running, fetching the books he'd brought from England from the back of the SUV, getting them set up around a big desk in an inner office, and then, when he realized that there was nothing that could brew tea in the hotel, heading back out to the donut shop for some.

It quickly became obvious, though, that Giles had brought the wrong books. He'd brought books about demons, of course, but they were all about demons that tended to congregate on the Hellmouth, not ones that hung out in cellars in Los Angeles. And most of the books were strictly about the Hellmouth, with demons, hatching or not, only mentioned in passing.

"Why did you bring all these, Giles?" Dawn asked, finally giving up and laying her head down on the desk. Her headache was completely gone, but she felt like she hadn't gotten any sleep for weeks. Though that might have been the jet lag.

"Did you think the Hellmouth might have been erupting here?" Willow asked.

"It was a distinct possibility," Giles said. He took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes. "With all of the mystical energy used to open that portal, the Hellmouth could easily have been drawn here."

"But it's not, right?" Dawn said. She raised her head from the desk and stared at Giles. "It's not happening." She could hardly conceive of the damage the Hellmouth could do to a huge city like L.A.

"It doesn't appear so," Giles said to his glasses. "Which means we're no closer than we were before."

"Don't say that, Giles," Willow said, whining a little. I don't know how much more of Rio I can take."

Giles put his glasses back on and looked at her in surprise. "It thought you liked it there."

"Oh," Willow said. She looked down at the notes she'd been taking. "I don't know."

"Well, I'm much more up for going back to Rome now that Buffy's broken up with the Immortal Doofus," Dawn said.

"She...she did?" Giles said. He looked like he was trying not to smile.

"'Bout time," Willow said, not even attempting to hide her grin. "I thought she seemed different," she added. "I think a happy dance is in order."

"Yeah, it's all good," Dawn said, allowing herself a few bobs of the happy dance - the seated version - then slumping back down into her chair. "Can we get back to the important stuff? Honestly, Giles, if the Hellmouth hasn't come back up by now...maybe it's never going to."

"The signs are pointing to an eruption in the near future," Giles said, ignoring the rolling of eyes of both Dawn and Willow.

"How long?" Willow asked, and Giles gave her his gentlest look.

"I simply don't know," he said.

They all turned back to their books after that, even though they suspected it was futile, and they were still at it when Angel, Faith, and Kennedy returned, once again covered in demon goo. Orange goo.

"Guess it wasn't purple," Dawn said.

"The house was," Angel said, wiping off his battle axe with a towel he must have grabbed along the way. "Good work, Dawn."

"Hey," Kennedy said. "We did the work."

"I think Dawnie gets some credit for having the vision in the first place," Willow said.

"Not to mention the interpretation," Angel said. "And on your first one, too. I'm impressed."

"First?" Dawn said, ignoring the probability that it really wasn't the first one to focus on what was important. "I'm going to be having more of those?"

Now the look Angel gave her was more sympathetic than elated, though he still looked weirdly satisfied underneath it.

"If I'm right, it does," he said, and he sounded very sure of himself. "I think you're my new link to the Powers That Be."

Several voices erupted at once, but the only one Dawn really heard was her own.

"Buffy's going to flip out."


	4. Chapter 4

Some time later, Dawn lay stretched out on her back on her bed and tried to process everything. Buffy still hadn't returned from her shopping expedition, and Dawn knew everything would have to be discussed again once she did, but for now, she was all hashed out.

She'd thought she'd escaped it, her whole more-than-human origin. It had been so long since she'd been anything more than boring old Dawn, human little sister of the Slayer. _ A_ Slayer, now, which made her even more ordinary. Her brief stint as a potential Slayer, initial knee-jerk reaction aside, had taught her that she liked it that way. She'd liked being ordinary. She'd liked knowing that her life wasn't scripted for her, the way Buffy's was. She'd liked knowing that she didn't have a destiny, that if she chose to join in Buffy's fight - which she was pretty sure she would have - it would be her choice.

Only now it wasn't. The Powers That Be had noticed that there was someone close to Angel (or Buffy, or Angel and Buffy) who wasn't quite human, and shoved visions in among all of the normal, human thoughts and plans in her head. And that was the good scenario - the other option was that she wasn't anything more than human after all, in which case the visions would eventually blow out the back of her head. She really could have done without that piece of imagery, thank you very much, Angel.

She had no choice now. Buffy could flip out all she wanted - and she would - but it would do no good. She'd been chosen for this, just the way Buffy had been chosen for her own destiny. And though neither one of them had wanted it, they'd both have to make the best of it.

Only she wasn't sure if she could. All sorts of stupid, mundane things kept flying through Dawn's brain...for instance, where would she live? She didn't think Buffy would like it if she lived with Angel, but how could she help him with her visions while living in Rome? He'd been very clear that the visions were sent to help him, specifically, and since the one she'd just had had been set here in L.A., that did make sense. It wouldn't make Buffy like it any better, though.

"Dawn?" Buffy stuck her head around Dawn's not-quite-closed door, then entered the room when Dawn didn't answer. "I'm so sorry, Dawn."

Dawn just stared at her. She wasn't flipping out. She walked over and sat down next to her on the bed.

"Faith said it looked really painful," she said.

"Faith said? What did Angel say?"  
Buffy looked down at her hands, clasped in her lap.

"I wouldn't let him talk," she said. "I know it wasn't fair of me, but I...I really, really wanted you to have a normal life. And Angel's in the way of that."

Dawn shook her head. "The Powers That Be, not Angel."

"Yeah, but I can't yell at them," Buffy said.

"Sure you can," Dawn said. She sat up. "We can do it right now. If they're the Powers That Be, they can hear us anywhere, right?"

"Right," Buffy said, looking at her in amazement. Then, she threw her head back and glared at the ceiling. "Why?"  
Dawn laughed, knelt up on the bed, and followed her lead. "Why me?" she shouted. "Haven't you done enough to the Summers sisters?"

"That's right," Buffy yelled. "Why us? What did we do to deserve this? How could you give a young girl this curse?"

"Two young girls," Dawn yelled.

"Three," came a voice from the doorway, and both of them turned to see Faith standing there.  
"Couldn't help overhearin'," she said. "Is this a private bitch session, or can anyone join in?"

"We're yelling at the Powers That Be," Dawn said, and Buffy added, "Of course you can join in. All the other Slayers can just yell at me, but you're not my fault."

"Nah," Faith said, sauntering over towards Dawn's bed. "I'm Xander's fault."

"What?" Dawn said. She'd been with Buffy on letting Faith in, because she did have a legitimate complaint against the Powers That Be, just like they did, but blaming Xander was too much.

Buffy must have felt the same way. She crossed her arms over her chest and said, "Want to explain that?"

Faith just grinned at both of them. "Or I guess it still is your fault, B. You died, and the X-Man brought you back. So, it's your fault I'm here, but it's Xander's that you're still here, too."

"Oh," Buffy said, and thought about it. Then she laughed. "Well, I can't blame myself, and I don't want to blame Xander, so we're back to yelling at the Powers That Be."

"Suits," Faith said. She put her hands on her hips and glared at the ceiling. "Why me?" she yelled. "Couldn't you see what I am? Couldn't you see what would happen?"

Dawn and Buffy stared at her, but when she looked down at them, Buffy turned her face up to the ceiling.

"Why young girls?" she yelled. "Weren't you just asking for trouble? How many Kendras did you think you'd get? Most of us are just all normal and mistake-making and speech-making and friend pushing-awaying...and I'm a little lost here, but you know what I mean." She wasn't yelling anymore by the end of it, and her gaze had fallen to the bedspread, so she didn't see Giles appear in the doorway.

"I think you're being a little hard on yourself," he said.

"I don't," Buffy said. She shook her head. "This isn't about me, though. This is about Dawn somehow becoming a conduit for Angel's lame Powers That Be."

Dawn let out a surprised giggle. "Angel's lame, and his hair sticks straight up."

Giles gave her a confused look, but didn't comment. He crossed the room and sat down on the end of the bed.

"The Powers That Be are hardly Angel's," he said. "From what he's been telling me, they didn't give him any preferential treatment, even when he was their Champion. And when he became the head of Wolfram and Hart..."

"Well, they weren't the only ones who gave up on him then," Buffy said.

"Don't you dare feel guilty about that," Dawn said.

"I...I...don't know what I feel," Buffy said.

"We were right," Faith said. "The Slayer dream proves that, doesn't it? I mean, we didn't get it until he left Wolfram and Hart."

"That's true," Giles said. "However, it also appears that we were incorrect in assuming that because Angel took over Wolfram and Hart, it automatically meant he was evil."

Buffy groaned.

"Maybe I'm penance," Dawn said.

Buffy put her head in her hands, but Faith laughed.

"Taking a little too much on yourself, ain't ya?" she said.

"I concur," Giles said. "The universe would not be that cruel." He paused for a moment, then added, "I don't think. Besides, Angel thinks the Powers That Be chose you because you're not quite human."

Buffy looked like she was trying to hide in her hands.

"Will it be enough?" Dawn asked.

"We will, of course, be researching extensively," Giles said. "But I suspect that Angel is correct. Since you received the visions directly from the Powers That Be, it would make sense that they would have chosen carefully."

Buffy peeked through her fingers.

"Received them directly?" she asked.

"Ah," Giles said. He took off his glasses and began polishing them. "It appears that when Doyle, the half-demon who originally had the visions, was about to die, he passed them to Cordelia. _He_ decided to do that, not the Powers That Be. Which ultimately led to a fallen Power using Cordelia to enter this dimension."

"Killin' Cordelia along the way," Faith said.

"Precisely," Giles said.

"But nothing bad happened when Doyle had the visions," Buffy said.

"Besides the head-explody pain," Dawn said.

"That's correct," Giles said.

"So, I won't pass off the visions," Dawn said. "Which means I don't get to die. Guess it's your job to make sure of that," she added, nudging her sister.

"Deal," Buffy said. "Still not liking your having to go through this, but I see how it's better than hellgods running around."

"Technically, Jasmine wasn't a hellgod," Giles said. He shrunk back at Buffy's glare. "Point taken."

"Y'know," Dawn said. "I'd really like to talk to Xander right now."

Buffy and Faith both looked at her.

"That was really random," Faith said.

"Not to mention, well, why?" Buffy said. "I mean, I miss him, too, but he...he can't know what you're going through. He...he got to choose."

"No, he didn't," Dawn said. She didn't even pretend to know what Buffy meant, but whatever it was, she was completely wrong.

"Yes, he did," Buffy said. "He could have blown me off, pretended he'd never heard of vampires or demons. Lots of people did. Do."

"Nah," Faith said. She beat out a strange rhythm on her thigh. "Not the X-man."  
"Yeah," Dawn said. "He didn't have a choice, not once he knew. Not Xander. But that's not why...I just want to talk to him. He helped me when I thought I wasn't going to be normal and then I was, so I figure he can help me now that I thought I was, but I'm not."

"Should I be worried that I followed that?" Giles asked, then added, "Don't answer that. At any rate, you'll be able to speak with Xander quite soon. He's on his way."

"He is?" three voices asked.

"Indeed," Giles said. "He made his way to somewhere he could telephone, because the two Slayers he's working with had the same dream the rest of you had. Once he found out Angel and his people were all right, he wasn't going to come back, but when I told him about Dawn, he changed his mind."

Dawn grinned. "Angel gets a phone call, but I get a transcontinental flight?" she said. "Sweet."

"Please," Buffy said. "I'm shocked Angel even got the phone call. And speaking of souled vampires Xander's not too fond of, what did he say about Spike?"

Giles sighed. "He said he should have known the bastard wouldn't stay dead," he said, making Faith grin and Dawn and Buffy stare at him in amazement. "Which, to be honest, is about how I feel. Only I wouldn't use that word."

"Sure you wouldn't," Faith said.

"He wouldn't," Dawn said. She felt almost giddy, what with talking about Spike and knowing Xander was on the way. "He'd have called him a wanker."

Buffy let out a snort of laughter, then turned towards Dawn. "Why are you so happy, anyway?" she asked. "Last I checked, you'd barely talk to Spike."

"I know," Dawn said. "And I still think I was right. After what he did to you...I know he has a soul now," she added quickly, to prevent Buffy from saying it, "but I didn't see much remorse, and I never heard him apologize for what he'd done. I thought you deserved at least that much."

"What changed?" Faith asked, since Buffy had her head down, her hair covering her face.

"He died," Dawn said. "Again. More. You know what I mean. And I had a lot of time to think about it. He was sorry. He might not have said it, but he was. His actions said it, but I was too angry, and things were too hectic, for me to see. I knew after he died, when it was too late...only it wasn't."

"Yeah," Buffy said. She looked so forlorn that Dawn reached out ot her, but before her hand connected, Buffy shook her hair out of her face.

"Tonight's not about me," she said, somehow sounding unsure of herself and very firm at the same time. "It's about these stupid visions that Dawn's got. We don't want any more Glorys running around, that's for sure, so how do we make sure Dawn doesn't pass on the visions? Besides not letting her die, which goes without saying."

Giles had never put his glasses back on, and now he put two fingers to the bridge of his nose and pinched so hard his skin turned white. Then he mumbled something into his hand so quietly that Dawn couldn't make it out, but judging from the way Buffy was grinning, she knew she wasn't going to like it.

"What?"

Giles steeled himself, then looked her in the eyes. "Doyle passed the visions on to Cordelia by kissing her," he said.

"What?" Dawn shrieked. Buffy and Faith clapped their hands to their ears, but she didn't care. "I can't ever kiss anyone?"


	5. Interlude: Spike

Spike paced the hospital corridor, glad that the ICU had no windows. He didn't need the clock over the nurses' station to tell him it was well past sunrise - past noon, in fact. He also didn't need the doctors telling him that the next few hours were the most critical for Gunn; over a century of judging just how far to drain a man before he died told him that without any poncy young resident acting solicitous. What the doctors couldn't tell him was what he should do. What Gunn would want him to do.

On the one hand, Gunn hated vampires. He'd come to respect Angel, and he tolerated Spike himself, but Spike had no doubts that Gunn's hatred for all other vamps burned bright. He respected that - at all stages of his life and unlife, he'd respected that kind of obsession. Except when it led to outhouses full of crosses, but one had to draw the line somewhere. On the other hand, he was also certain that Gunn wanted to live. He'd been willing to lay down his life to fight the Circle of the Black Thorn - that went without saying - but now that they'd won, Old Charlie-boy would want to live, just like any other bloke. And if the doctors couldn't help him, Spike could - after a fashion, at any rate.

The question was, would Gunn want to be vamped, if it was the only way he could live? Spike just didn't know, which was why he was pacing back and forth in the hospital corridor, his duster billowing behind him almost like the Big Poof's. Illyria had kept up with him for awhile, but since he couldn't even make his dilemma understandable to himself, let alone her, she'd decided that communing with the plants gathered in one corner of the waiting area was more interesting than following her pet as he wore down the molecules of the floor a few thousandths of a millimeter. Her words.

The thing was, if Spike sired Gunn, he wouldn't be the same person. Spike didn't know just how different he'd be - it seemed to vary from vamp to vamp, and as far as he could tell, there was no way to know ahead of time how much the demon would change the human's personality. He didn't actually have much experience in siring, anyway - when he'd been with Dru, she'd sired enough for the both of them, plus looking after her was enough of a job. He hadn't needed any sodding fledglings running around after them. And then there'd been the chip, and now the soul...he knew he'd sired a few fledges when he'd been triggered by the First, but he hadn't met any of them after they'd risen. Not to talk to, anyway.

And none of that addressed his main problem: what would Gunn want him to do? He could just ask him, if he could get to him, but since both Spike and Illyria were quite obviously not relations of Gunn's, they hadn't been able to see him since he'd been admitted. That wouldn't stop Spike if he knew Gunn was dying, but it seemed pointless to fight his way in, possibly hurting innocent people on the way, just to ask Gunn a question. Not for the first time, Spike reflected that life - or unlife - had been much easier without the soul.

"Do you know why you're pacing yet?"

"Gah," Spike said, almost smacking Illyria in the face. Almost, because she stopped him, though she didn't look upset. She never looked upset. "Sorry," he said. "Can't get used to you sneaking up like that - shouldn't do that, y'know. Could get - well, no, I suppose you couldn't get hurt, but you still shouldn't."

Illyria nodded. "I will remember," she said. She didn't say anything more, just looked at him, and Spike realized she was still waiting for the answer to her question.

"Yes and no," he said. "Look, how well do you know Gunn?"

"The shell knew him intimately," Illyria said.

"Yeah, that's right," Spike said. "Can you...can you remember that time?"

"I can," Illyria said, and suddenly Fred was standing in her place, bouncy hair and sweet expression firmly in place. "What do you want to know about Charles?"

Spike recoiled as though she'd hit him. "Change back," he said. Growled, really. "Change back. Please."

"As you wish," Illyria said, and did so. "What do you want to know?"

Spike swallowed, trying to get Fred's image out of his mind. "If Gunn were dying, would he want to be vamped?" he said as fast as he could. They were speaking too softly for any normal human to hear them at that distance, but he didn't want to run any unnecessary risks.

Illyria studied him, her head on one side. Or maybe she was examining her memories, because after a few moments, she said, "No."  
"No?" Spike said, staring at her. "That's it - just, no?"  
"Gunn staked his sister after she became a vampire," Illyria said, sounding as though she were reading the weather report.

"Oh," Spike said, understanding now. Really, dealing with family who'd been vamped never seemed to go well. So Gunn wouldn't want Spike to sire him. The problem was, Spike still wanted to do it.

He started pacing again, trying to sort out his thoughts. He liked Gunn; that was the problem. He didn't like to think of a world without Gunn in it. And soul or no soul, Spike had the power to keep Gunn around, or part of him, anyway. If Gunn wouldn't want him to do it, it would be a purely selfish act, but it wasn't as though he hadn't done one of those before. And they had a witch who could do the resouling spell; all they'd need would be an Orb of Thessala, and this was L.A. There had to be some of those around; there was everything else.

That settled it. If Gunn was dying, Spike would sire him. And none of these poncy doctors would stop him -

"Excuse me."

Spike turned to see a plump, cheerful-looking nurse smiling at him from the other end of the corridor.

"It looks like your friend is going to be fine," she said. "His blood counts are up, and he's fallen into a natural sleep."

Spike slumped against the wall of the corridor. "Can we see him?"

"Well," the nurse said, studying them. Somewhere in the back of his mind, Spike wondered what she thought of them. They couldn't be the norm of hospital visitors, but then, it was L.A. "He's asleep, like I said, but I suppose...one at a time, mind."

Spike waved at Illyria to go first. He needed some time to recover.


	6. Chapter 6

Dawn sat slumped down on her spine on the pouf in the middle of the hotel lobby, waiting for Willow to bring Xander back from the airport. Almost everyone else was waiting there, too - Faith had gone to spell Spike and Illyria at Gunn's bedside in the hospital, and Giles was on the phone with someone back at the New Council, but everyone else was there. Even Angel, slouching against the reception desk. Even Spike, sitting on the staircase leading to the rest of the hotel and examining his fingernails or something. Dawn watched him out of the corner of her eye, wondering what he was thinking. Both he and Angel were studiously ignoring Buffy, who sat next to Dawn on the pouf, buffing her own nails. She'd taken the time to have her hair cut and colored in addition to shopping - a shorter, slightly darker blonde look than the one she'd had in Rome - and she presented the picture of one wholly engrossed in her manicure. Dawn wasn't taken in - Buffy had winked at her as she'd sat down, and though she wasn't sure if the act was for Angel and Spike, or for Kennedy, seething as she trained alone on one side of the lobby, she didn't doubt it was an act. Buffy was in one of her dangerous moods, when she could say or do anything, and Dawn just hoped Willow and Xander got there before she exploded.

It was odd, though, everyone being there. She couldn't imagine either Angel or Spike - or Kennedy, for that matter - would be that happy to see Xander. She also couldn't imagine that Illyria was looking forward to it, seeing as she didn't know Xander; but then, it hadn't taken Dawn long to realize that she couldn't imagine why Illyria did anything. When she'd first came face to face with her, Illyria had studied her for a moment, and then inclined her head, not as to an equal, but as to one not too far below her. And while that might have answered one question Dawn had - apparently, she wasn't completely human - it had also been quite disconcerting. Buffy hadn't liked it, either, since Illyria hadn't accorded her the same honor.

All the same, they all seemed to be waiting for Xander, as though they couldn't continue without him. Of course, Dawn had stated that she needed Xander to help her cope with her visions and her new status as Angel's link to the Powers That Be, so that could be what Angel was waiting for. Kennedy was waiting for Willow; for someone as avowedly independent as Kennedy, she sure seemed to stop existing when Willow wasn't with her. Who knew what Illyria was doing; well, she seemed to be counting dust motes in the air or listening to traffic sounds from three blocks over - that's how Dawn interpreted her face and attitude - but that couldn't be right. And whatever Spike was doing, she knew he wouldn't tell them.

Which left Buffy, since Dawn knew she herself was waiting for Xander. In some ways, Buffy was an enigma to her - always had been - and yet, sometimes she felt like she could read her mind. Right now, Buffy was feeling lost, after her time with the Immortal Wanker, and she needed to recharge her mental batteries. Which meant hanging out with her lifelines - Willow and Xander. Which she couldn't do until Xander got there. And which might be difficult, anyway, since Xander's expressed reason for coming was to help Dawn.

Dawn studied her sister out of the corner of her eye, looking for signs of resentment. She didn't see any; in fact, when Buffy looked up from her nails and met her eye, she winked again, then looked over at Kennedy, an expression of almost unholy glee on her face. She then shook her hair behind her shoulders and opened her mouth, but before she could say anything, the door opened, and Xander and Willow walked into the lobby.

"Where's my Dawnie?" Xander said, but Dawn had already thrown herself into his arms. He pretended to be bowled over by that, but he was already stroking Dawn's hair and murmuring that everything was going to be all right.

"Think of it as being a Watcher," he said. "You get to tell Angel where to go and what to fight. You get to be Angel's Watcher." Dawn looked up at the wonder in his voice and saw a beautific look on his face. She giggled, and he came back down to earth. "And you get to live in this place," he added, looking around. "And who wouldn't want to do that?"

"Very funny," Angel growled.

"Hey, man," Xander said. "Glad you're not evil again - and you'll be paying for Dawn's college, right? It's the least you can do, since she'll have to stay in L.A. for it."

"Xander!" Dawn, Buffy, and Willow said, but Angel looked thoughtful.

"Good point," he said, and studied Dawn. Dawn would have squirmed if Xander didn't still have an arm around her - she'd rarely been on the receiving end of such an intent look from Angel. "Are you still interested in languages?"

"Uh, yeah," Dawn said, surprised he knew she ever had been. She looked over at Buffy, who was still studying her manicure, but Dawn could tell it was now to keep herself from throwing herself at Xander the way Dawn had done. She felt a swell of love for her sister - she was trying very, very hard to keep all of this about Dawn, not herself.

"I know a professor of linguistics near here," Angel went on. "We'll get an interview for you with him. Have you applied to any schools yet?"

Dawn shook her head slowly. "That's this year...but I was hoping Oxford."

"And you'll get in," Willow said, though Dawn wasn't sure she agreed with her.

Angel looked down at the floor. "I'm afraid that's not possible anymore," he said. "But this guy is really good, and -"

Giles burst into the lobby from the inner office.

"Is Xander here yet? Oh, good - where's Faith?"

"With Gunn at the hospital," Buffy said, standing up. "What's wrong?"

"It's the Hellmouth," Giles said, and everyone looked at him, varying degrees of hope on their faces. "It's finally coming back up."

"Where?" Dawn said, really hoping he wouldn't say Rome. She didn't trust that Immortal Doofus farther than Jonathan could throw him.

"A small city called Bethlehem in the state of Pennsylvania," Giles said.

Dawn gasped, and Willow giggled, but it was Xander who said what they were all thinking.

"The Hellmouth's in a little town called Bethlehem? Sweet."


	7. Chapter 7

The lobby of the Hyperion was not the best place for one of Giles' patented exposition speeches. There weren't enough places to sit, for one thing, other than the stairs and the floor. Spike hadn't moved from his place on the stairs, and neither Angel nor Illyria looked inclined to sit down, but Dawn, Buffy, Willow, Xander, and Kennedy all wanted to sit down on the pouf, and it obviously wasn't going to work. What shocked Dawn was that it was Kennedy who ended up sitting on the floor, leaning against Willow's leg. She'd thought it would be Xander, but he was squished in between Dawn and Buffy, and looked quite happy about it.

There also weren't any multi-media devices in the lobby, or even a whiteboard. Dawn had missed Giles' strangely macabre drawings, and had hoped to see some now, but he was reduced to standing next to the reception desk and just talking to them. He started by bringing Angel, Spike, and Illyria up to speed on what they'd already known.

"When the Sunnydale Hellmouth was closed," he began, "we knew that the mystical energy that had been centered there would eventually erupt somewhere else. The most likely place was Cleveland."

"Why?" Spike said, looking interested for the first time since he'd sat on the stairs. "Cleveland's not a thrilling place, but it's not half bad."

"That's a fair description," Giles said, looking surprised. "Cleveland was the site of a smaller mystical convergence...a smaller Hellmouth, if you will. Much smaller, but since it was closest mystical convergence to the now closed Hellmouth, we suspected that would be where we'd all need to go. We were wrong."

Dawn sighed, remembering those days. Giles had pushed them mercilessly, so insistent on reaching Cleveland that they arrived still in the school bus, with very little more than the clothes on their backs. And then they found that, instead of converging on a newly virulent Hellmouth, most of the vampires and demons had left town. Willow had quickly realized that there was no mystical convergence anywhere near Cleveland, though there had been in the very recent past. Something had blocked it, preventing the city from becoming the new Hellmouth. The problem was that they hadn't know what had done it, or why.

That uncertainty had been their undoing. As long as there was a crisis - as long as they'd _thought_ there was a crisis - the Scoobies had rallied 'round, ready to do anything to meet it. But once they realized that not only was there no crisis, it seemed like there wouldn't be one, they'd fallen apart. Literally. Giles had flown back to England to try to pull together the remnants of the Watcher's Council - including the bank accounts. He'd left Buffy nominally in charge, but she'd yo-yo'd back and forth between giddy and catatonic so often - sometimes several times on the same day - that everyone except Giles had known that wouldn't work. They'd floundered around for a few weeks, everyone doing what they'd wanted, until Xander had suddenly woken up from the fog he'd been in and took control. Dawn didn't know why it had happened - he'd been leaning towards the catatonic side of Buffy's seesaw ever since he'd come down from the crazy joking at the edge of the Sunnydale crater - but was she ever glad it did. He'd organized patrols, set up training schedules for the new Slayers who'd stuck around, and whenever they didn't hear anything from Giles for a few days, he was the one who called him. He was also the one who'd yelled at Giles when he dithered over where they should go - Dawn was priveledged to hear Xander's side of the conversation, and she'd never forget it. She strongly suspected that Buffy had overheard it as well, though Dawn hadn't seen her nearby, because it was after that phone call that Buffy had started clinging to Xander. Which, in turn, had led to another phone call, which Dawn hadn't overheard, but everyone knew had happened.

The upshot of that "discussion" was that they'd all split up - each going their own way to the ends of the earth, to sit and watch another one of those mystical convergences that could turn into a full-blown Hellmouth. Dawn had had to watch as Xander slipped away to Africa - he'd been the first one to go, and though he'd hugged her tightly at the airport and promised he'd be back, she'd been scared that he never would. She'd stayed scared until about six months later, when he'd finally started answering her emails - not often, of course, but whenever he was somewhere he could. They weren't happy emails, but they were from Xander, and that was all she needed.

Actually, she'd had to watch as everyone left her back then. Willow and Kennedy went to Rio, Willow bouncing off the walls with excitement. Once Robin was healing nicely, he took Faith to Vancouver, along with several of the young Slayers. They'd set up a training center there, Faith seemingly enjoying being the primary Slayer attached to a mystical convergence, Robin obviously getting off on teaching Slayers all about the mission. Dawn wasn't surprised at all that he'd decided that was more important than helping Angel and his crew defeat an army of demons. He'd always, in her opinion, missed the point of demon fighting just a bit.

Andrew, Vi, and Rona had flown off to England to join Giles in creating the new Watcher's Council. Dawn had been surprised that Rona had wanted to go - she'd liked Rona, but had pegged her as someone who would head for the hills as soon as she could - but both she and Vi had seemed serious about making sure that no other Slayer would ever have to endure what Buffy and Faith had been through. Especially the Cruciamentum - Dawn had told them about that one night, and it wasn't long after that they'd announced their decision to head to England. Andrew had tagged along - neither Vi nor Rona seemed to encourage him, but they weren't as outright cruel as the rest of the Scoobies - except Xander - so Dawn wasn't surprised. Buffy certainly hadn't shown any desire for him to stay, and she and Dawn were practically the only ones left.

Buffy had a few choices. She could have stayed in Cleveland - just because that mystical convergence had been blocked, there was no guarantee that it would stay that way. She could have gone to England and helped Giles. He'd asked her - formally, as the Senior Slayer - to do so. But she'd asked for other options, and he'd given them to her. Other places around the world where a Slayer would be helpful, other mystical convergences: China, New Zealand, and Rome.

Dawn hadn't had a choice, of course. When Buffy decided on Rome, Dawn didn't complain, although she'd been lobbying for New Zealand, so she could see where they'd filmed The Lord of the Rings movies. She'd been so happy to get out of Cleveland, where there were so few vampires that Buffy had nothing to expend her energy against, that she wouldn't have cared if they'd been headed to the wilds of Transylvania. If there were any wilds in Transylvania anymore. As long as there were vampires.

And to begin with, Rome had been fun. Buffy had fulfilled her duties as the Slayer, but the vamps of Rome weren't like the vamps of Sunnydale, even though there was a mystical convergence for them to feed off of right under the Vatican. They'd been almost civilized, and as soon as they knew a Slayer was in town, most of them cleared out. After all, nowhere in Europe was hard to get to, and Buffy couldn't be everywhere, nor live forever. They were prepared to wait her out.

Which turned out to be the problem. A few months after they moved to Rome, the fun of living in a new city with a sister who actually paid attention to her died out, when Buffy grew moody and withdrawn again. There weren't enough vampires to hold her attention, and the mystical convergence just seemed to sit there, certainly not becoming a new Hellmouth. None of the others showed any signs of erupting, either, which at first made Buffy happy, because it meant Spike's sacrifice had meant something. But then Giles had paid them a visit to explain that the Devon coven could feel that the Hellmouth would come back up - and come back up soon - and Buffy had spiralled into depression. Nothing Dawn could do perked her up, not even when she stayed out too late and didn't call to tell her sister where she'd be. Buffy had barely bothered to yell at her.

And then, she'd met the Immortal. It happened so quickly; one day, Buffy was sparkling again, blushing and shy, and the next, he'd moved in. Dawn had been happy at first - Buffy was happy, so she was happy - but it wasn't long before she'd suspected something was wrong. Buffy was happy, yes, but she reminded Dawn too much of her mother when she was dating Ted the Robot for her to feel comfortable. She'd emailed Willow and called Giles, but by the time they believed her and got worried for Buffy, it was too late. Buffy was way too Stepford, and whatever hold the Immortal Dweeb had on her couldn't be broken from Rio or London. Willow had been planning on visiting sometime during the summer to see what she could do, but the Powers That Be intervened, and now Buffy had thrown off her thrall herself. Dawn wondered if guilt was why Willow was pressed so tightly to Buffy's side, or if she was just trying to withdraw from Kennedy a little.

All through Giles' tale, Angel looked interested but impatient, but Spike looked more and more incredulous as he went on. Finally, he couldn't seem to stand it anymore.

"You split up?" he said, standing up and glaring at all of them. "Did you learn nothin' from your time in Sunnyhell? Buffy's the longest living Slayer in history, and, much as I hate to admit it, you lot are part of the reason why. How could you take that away from her? Hell, if I'd known you'd done that, I'd -"

"You'd what, Spike?" Xander said, and Dawn could feel him tighten his arm around Buffy. "What would you have done? Emailed her? Actually picked up the phone and called her? Oh, wait, you could have done that, anyway, but you didn't. So don't go off on us. We did the best we could."

"And I wanted some time away," Buffy said. Dawn looked over at her to see her looking seriously at Spike. "I needed some time away. Me, Spike. My choice. It might not have worked out quite how I wanted, but I made the decision. Don't try to take that away from me. Oh, and guess what? I'm still here."

"And we're all here," Willow said. "When an apocolypse was at hand, we came a-running. That's what we do."

"An apocolypse that you couldn't have won on your own, may I remind you," Giles said.

Angel said, "Hey," but Spike had the grace to look abashed.

"Sorry," he said. "I jus'..." But he didn't say anything else; instead, he waved at Giles to continue with his story.

"So, we've been in a holding pattern for awhile now," Giles said. "I thought that maybe the Hellmouth would reemerge here when all of the Slayers in the world had the same dream about your fight with Wolfram and Hart."

"All of them?" Angel said. He looked about as nonplussed as Dawn had ever seem him.

"All of the ones we've located," Giles said. "I suspect the rest had it, too, and I can't imagine what they thought of it."

Dawn took a deep breath. "Me, too," she said.

"Me, three," Xander said. "My Slayers at least had someone they could ask. The ones who didn't must have thought -"

"No," Dawn said, needing to get it out now that she'd started. "I mean, I had the dream, too."

"What?" Buffy said. Dawn winced, and she lowered her voice. "Why did you have a Slayer dream?"

"I don't think I did," Dawn said. "I think it was a vision. It came complete with the head-splitty pain. At the time, I thought that was because I'm not a Slayer, but now..."

"Why would Dawn get a vision of the same thing as a Slayer dream?" Xander asked.

"Well, they're both sent by the Powers," Giles said. "Ultimately, anyway; we've never been completely certain how the Slayers get the dreams, but it makes the most sense that they're from the Powers. Maybe it was a reduncancy."  
"Belt and suspenders?" Spike said. "The Powers aren't really like that. They tend to tell you something once and then rely on you to get it right."

"Spike's right," Angel said, looking pained.

"It wasn't a normal Slayer dream," Kennedy said. "I mean, I've never had one quite that detailed and non-psychodelic."

"I -" Buffy said, but then stopped. "Huh. It's been so long since I had one that I'd kinda forgotten, but Kennedy's right - it was unusual."

"Then what?" Dawn said. "It was all just my vision, and I somehow relayed it to all of the Slayers in the world?"  
"You are the Key," Illyria said, making everyone else in the room swing around to look at her.

"Uh, yeah," Dawn said. "Or I was."

"You were, are, and ever will be," Illyria said. She tilted her head to one side. "You do not understand your powers. That is interesting."

Feeling helpless, Dawn looked back at Giles. He was polishing his glasses.

"Well, it's certainly possible that your Key powers were somehow activated by your first vision," he said, putting them back on and studying her. "I'll have to do some research when I go back to England to pack my things for the move to Bethlehem."

"But the Council didn't know about the Key," Buffy said. "And most of the books got blown up, anyway. What can you look up if there's no information?"

"I'll manage," Giles said, giving her a look. Buffy subsided and reached across Xander to squeeze Dawn's hand.

"So, about Bethlehem," Kennedy said. "I've been there; it's a tourist trap at Christmas, and other than that, it's a nice little town. Why would the Hellmouth come up there?"

"I don't know," Giles said. "Nothing in the area was intrinsically mystical prior to the eruption, so this really makes very little sense. And when members of the Devon coven tried to scry the town afterwards, they could sense nothing and were left unconscious for hours."

Angel drew in a deep breath, which Dawn always thought silly, because he didn't need to breathe. "You're thinking it was deliberate?" he said.

"That's exactly what I'm thinking," Giles said, and they were all quiet for a moment, pondering that.

"We need to get there pronto," Xander said.

"I concur," Giles said. "I'll begin looking into the housing situation immediately. In the meantime, think about what all of you want to do. We could use all of you there, of course, but I'd understand it if you didn't feel like you wanted to leave where you are now."

Everyone began speaking at once, except for Dawn. She slumped back onto the poof, feeling extremely weird. Most of the important people in her life would be going to fight evil on the Hellmouth, and she'd be staying in L.A. to help Angel be a champion. Once again, she had no choice.


	8. Interlude: Faith

Faith was already in the room when she realized Gunn had company. She backed out quickly, but not quickly enough, because Gunn smirked at her, and the company turned her head and smiled. She was thin, and blonde, and almost effortlessly pretty. Faith had never seen her before.

"Sorry," she said. "I can leave you two alone."

"No, come on in," Gunn said. "I'd like for two of the strongest women I've ever known to meet each other."

"Strong? Me?" Faith and the company both said. They gave each other a startled look, then turned to stare at Gunn, who laughed.

"Last I checked, the definition of strong wasn't 'break under pressure'," Faith said.

"Uh, huh," Gunn said. "'Cause that's exactly what you did when faced with Angelus. And don't you start," he added, turning to the company. "I might have to get out of this bed and...talk some sense into you."

The company laughed. "Well, we can't have that," she said. She turned to Faith. "You really can come in, you know. I'm Anne."

Faith realized she'd just been standing in the doorway like some big geek, so she swaggered into the room. Anne was sitting in the only chair, and she didn't want to sit down on Gunn's bed, so she propped her butt on the foot of it, instead. She wasn't about to admit it, but she wished Anne would leave. Gunn seemed to be the only one of their merry band that wasn't constantly flipping out while trying to pretend that he wasn't. At least, she didn't think so. Suddenly, Faith wasn't so sure.

"Are you all right?" Anne asked her.

Faith shook her hair out of her face and gave Anne her best 'Who, me, officer?' grin. "Five by five," she said.

"Mm, hm," Anne said. The way she was looking at her made Faith twitchy. No one knew her that well, and she sure didn't want any fucking sympathy from someone she'd just met. Screw being careful, anyway. Gunn was the one who'd mentioned Angelus.

"You've been missing out, being stuck here all this time," she said to Gunn, turning her back on Anne. "The Hellmouth's come back up."

"I heard," Gunn said, but what really surprised Faith was Anne's, "What? No!"

"I grew up in Sunnydale," she added at Faith's stare. "I thought you all closed it for good."

"How did..." Faith started, but then she trailed off, because she didn't really know what she wanted to ask.

"You're a Slayer, right?" Anne said, and now it was Gunn's turn to look at her.

"How'd you know that?" he asked. "I didn't tell you when I was woozy, did I?"

Anne laughed. "No. I just...I can tell. You look like Buffy."

Faith laughed, too, though she wasn't really amused. "I think we all can agree that the only thing my looks have in common with Buffy's is that we're both smoking hot."

"Well, you are that," Anne said, smiling sweetly at her. "But it's more in how you move and how you...I don't know...are. I can just tell. Buffy saved my life, you know. Twice."

Faith shrugged. "That's what she does."

"That's what you both do," Anne said. "That's who you are."

Faith looked at her, wondering just what this chick saw when she looked at her. Whatever it was, Faith didn't think it was really there. Anne wasn't talking about dealing with apocolypsy shit; she was talking about helping just one person. Yeah, Faith had been patrolling regularly in Vancouver, plus helping Robin train the newbie Slayers. But it still didn't feel natural. Whenever she saved someone's life - and it did happen - the someone wanted to thank her, and she'd never got used to that. It still felt like the thanks were meant for someone else, not her. Like the thanks were meant for Buffy.

"Yeah," she said to Anne, shrugging like it was nothing, then turning right away to Gunn. "So, you heard about the brand spanking new Hellmouth in Bethlehem?"

Gunn nodded. "Freshly brewed evil, right in the Christmas City," he said. "And Angel said your Watcher dude thinks it was on purpose."

Faith shrugged. "That's for the brains to figure out. I go where they point, fight when they fight."

"You don't have to, you know," Gunn said.

"As the lady said, I'm a Slayer," Faith said.

"Yeah, but you could stay here in L.A. and fight evil here. There's plenty of it."

"That's for sure," Anne said. She looked sad, as well she might.

"We could use your help," Gunn said. "And I think we made a kick-ass team."

"Yeah," Faith said. "I hadn't really thought about it - I just...huh."

She barely paid attention to the rest of the conversation, though she tried to hide it every time one of them said something to her. She left as soon as she could think of a reason to, and headed back to the Hyperion. She had a lot to think about.


	9. Chapter 9

Dawn was lying on her stomach on her bed reading when the shouting began. She put her bookmark at her place and carefully put the book on her bedside table. Angel had given it to her in a big box of things that had been Wesley's. Giles hadn't liked it, but Angel had made it clear that he didn't care what Giles thought. Dawn had felt guilty about it for about five minutes - that being the length of time it took for her to feel comfortable reading in Sumerian again and realizing what she had. So she wasn't best pleased to be torn out of her reading, let alone by what sounded like furious women screaming at each other.

She eased open her door and looked both ways down the hallway. Faith was sitting on the sill of the window at one end of it, but far from shouting, she looked like she hadn't even heard the commotion. Obviously she had, what with Slayer hearing and all, but Dawn wasn't about to interrupt her thoughts. She looked the other way and saw Xander sitting on the floor, boxes spread out around him, peering through the bars to the lobby below. She crept out of her room and down the hall, crouching down next to Xander and following his gaze to see Willow and Kennedy, standing on either side of the pouf in the lobby, glaring at each other.

"How can you say that to me?" Willow said.

"How can I not?" Kennedy said. "You know it's true. Anything Buffy or Xander wants, you can't wait to do."

"They're my best friends, Kennedy. We've been over this." Willow wasn't shouting anymore; she sounded exhausted.

Xander pushed a box over towards Dawn. She looked inside it to see a jumble of books, magazines, and knick-knacks.

"No, thanks," she whispered. "I'll just eavesdrop along with you."  
"I thought you might help me sort," Xander whispered back. "These are Cordy's. I asked Angel if I could go through them to see if there are any pictures from Sunnydale...I'm surprised he said yes."

"I'm not," Dawn said, thinking about her own box of books. She reached into one of the boxes but dropped the book she'd picked up when Kennedy's raised voice jerked her out of her thoughts.

"I don't care!" she shouted. "Or, wait - you don't care. About me, or about us."

"Sweetie, you know that's not true," Willow said. She sounded like she was about to cry.

"Are you sure I should be doing this?" Dawn asked Xander, pulling a Sunnydale High yearbook out of the box. "Cordelia didn't really like me, after all."

Xander grinned at her. "Maybe she was just threatened by the imminent arrival of yet another gorgeous brunette on her scene," he said.

Dawn snorted. "Somehow, I don't think that was it." But she opened the yearbook, anyway - it opened right to a picture of Cordelia cheering.

"You've never put me first," Kennedy said. "Never. I know quite well that if it were Tara asking you to go back to Rio with her, you'd go."

Dawn and Xander both looked up at that. Willow, even with tear tracks on her cheeks, looked murderous. Well, not literally.

"You _don't_ know that," she said. "And even if you did, you don't have the right to say it. Besides, Tara wouldn't ask me not to do something I knew was the right thing to do."

"I don't have the right?" Kennedy exploded. She continued on that theme for awhile, seemingly ignoring Willow's last sentence. Dawn just shook her head. Trust Kennedy to go for what affected her pride, without even listening to what Willow was actually saying. She turned a page of the yearbook and saw the place where Buffy should have been. She snorted a laugh, remembering how angry Buffy had been over that, but when Xander looked at her, she shook her head. She didn't want to bring up everything that had happened around that time. Though maybe, with Willow not of his persuasion anymore, he wouldn't mind so much.

"It's the Hellmouth," Willow shouted. "End of the world, apocolypse - hello, any of this ringing a bell for you? I know you didn't really live with it like I did, but Kennedy, you should know how important this is. Why would you want to be anywhere else?"

"The point isn't why, it's that I do," Kennedy said. Her voice was softer now, almost pleading. "We're doing good in Rio, aren't we? Training Slayers, bringing some stability to neighborhoods that haven't seen it in decades! And we have a nice life there, don't we? Is it so wrong to want that to stay the same?"

Willow looked sad, though she wasn't crying anymore.

"Nothing stays the same," she said.

"Ain't that the truth," Xander said. He held up a picture in a frame for Dawn to see. It was of Angel, Cordelia, and Wesley, their heads together, grinning at the camera. Dawn couldn't remember Angel ever smiling like that. Cordelia looked much the same as when Dawn had known her, except...she squinted at the picture. Cordy looked...sure of herself. Confident, but not in her old, arrogant, "I'm better than you, so bow down and worship me" way. More like she knew her place in the world and was satisfied with it. Wesley looked about half-way between the man she'd known and the man she'd seen in her dream, but he looked happy, too. More than anything else, they looked like a family.

"Who'da thunk, huh?" Xander said.

"Yeah," Dawn said, still studying the picture. "Though this sort of work seems to make the strangest bedfellows."

"You're not wrong," Xander said. "So maybe you should stay out of any strange beds."

"Didn't Buffy tell you?" Dawn said, hearing the bitterness in her voice and not caring. "No bedfellows for Dawn. I thought it was no kissing at first, but Angel set me straight. It's just no sex."  
"Hmm," Xander said. "You sure about that? Because Cordy told me she...anyway," he added quickly. "Even if it's true, I'm sure you'll find a way around it. In fact, if you haven't by the time you're, say, thirty-five, I'll even help find one."

"Thanks so much," Dawn said. "You're a pal." He'd given her something to think about, anyway.

"So, that's it?" Kennedy said. "We spend a year and a half together, and you leave me because I won't drop everything and move half-way around the world to a cutesy little tourist trap? There are plenty of things to fight in Rio - remember the glitter monster?"  
Dawn peeked through the railings, hope in her heart. Willow was crying again, but she also had on her Resolve Face.

"Yes, I think it is," she said. "I'm sorry, Kennedy, but if you can't see how important this is to me, you don't understand me at all."

"Oh, I understand you, all right," Kennedy said. She stalked to the outer doors, flung them open, and stomped outside.

Dawn couldn't help herself - as soon as the doors closed again, she burst into applause.

Or, rather, she got one clap out before a pair of hands caught hers in a hard grip.

"Don't," Faith said, and Dawn looked up to see her bent over her, her eyes on Willow. "Even when you know it's the right thing to do, breaking up with someone you love is the hardest thing there is."

"Really?" Dawn said.

Faith must have understood her real question, because she let go of her hands, stood up, and smiled down at her, showing her dimples. "No, not really. It's damn hard, though, and it wouldn't help Willow to hear you clapping."

Dawn turned to Xander to see what he thought, but he wasn't there. She looked back down at the lobby and saw him already down there, holding Willow as she cried.


	10. Chapter 10

"Okay," Buffy said. "Next one. Tastefully sexy, or Slutty McSlutterton?"

She opened the dressing room door and stepped out. Dawn studied her, taking in the silky red top and the black leather skirt.

"Love the top; the skirt's way too short," she said.

"Really?" Buffy said, turning to look at herself in the mirror. "You think it makes my legs look fat?"

Dawn laughed. "Nothing could do that, numb-nut," she said. "It just screams, 'Take me. Take me hard.' Un...unless that's what you're going for."

"Hardly," Buffy said, shooting her a glare. "And you're far too young to know what that means."

"Uh, huh," Dawn said. "So, why are we shopping for tastefully sexy, anyway? Is it Angel or Spike?"

"Neither," Buffy said, looking down at her hands, smoothing the skirt over her thighs. "But maybe...someday...I'll want to look tastefully sexy for someone. Someone I haven't met yet. Maybe. And who knows what kind of stores Bethlehem has."

"It has a mall," Dawn said. "I looked it up. Although it seems like it's in the next town over, which, I thought Sunnydale was bad."

"Yeah," Buffy said. "But at least it's not Rome. And at least we speak the language." She looked at herself in the mirror again. "You sure it's too short? 'Cause I'm thinking, with the right boots...what do you think, Will?"

"It's fine," Willow said from where she sat wedged into a corner, but she didn't even look up. Then, she did, and covered her mouth with her hand. "I'm so sorry," she said. "I'm such a horrible friend. I told you I shouldn't come."

"'Course you should have," Buffy said, not quite meeting Willow's eyes in the mirror. "I need the opinion of the older-than-high-school crowd. Plus, you can really tell me if I look hot or not. This is a great perk of having a lesbian friend, did I ever tell you that? And I'm thinking I should shut up now."

Willow gave a watery giggle. "Well, if that's what you're looking for, I can definitely tell you that you look hot." She put her head to one side. "Dawnie's right, though - the skirt's too short. Reminds me of something Xander's mom once told me - why would a boy want to buy the cow if he can get the milk for free?"

"Ew," Dawn said.

Buffy turned to face Willow. "Xander's mother said that? To you?"

Willow looked at her hands, twisted in her lap. "Yeah," she said. "She freaked me out a bit. I'd gotten to Xander's house too early, and he was still in the shower. I could totally hear it going and knew it was him...this was freshman year in high school, so you can imagine. Mrs. Harris must have seen something in my face, because she started in on this whole lecture about boys and the only thing they want. By the time Xander was ready to go, I could have heated all of Sunnydale, my face was so red."

"Kinda ironic now, huh?" Dawn said.

Willow looked up at her as though she didn't understand, then shrugged. "I guess, a little. Anyway, that's much more a Faith skirt than a Buffy skirt...at least, a Faith skirt from before Faith became...whatever she's become. It's not a Buffy skirt, though...unless it is. I've barely seen you in the past year - maybe it is a Buffy skirt now. How would I know?" Tears started to roll down her cheeks, and Buffy looked at Dawn in a panic.

"It's still not a Buffy skirt," Dawn said, moving over so she could put her arm around Willow.

"And you're seeing me now," Buffy said. "We're all togethery and ready for some Scooby action. Actually, if Giles doesn't have any better luck house hunting, we're really going to be togethery. No one in Bethlehem seems to have a rundown hotel they want to sell us, even if we could afford it. How did Angel find the Hyperion, anyway?"

"Oh, I know," Dawn said. "Gunn told me, the last time I visited him in the hospital. See, there was this demon that was causing all this -" She broke off, because her head exploded in pain. Through the images and pounding that followed, she could barely feel Willow supporting her so she wouldn't fall over. Part of her mind was impressed at how much more aware of her surroundings she was during this vision, compared to the ones she'd had before. The rest of her mind just hurt.

When the vision finally ended, Dawn opened her eyes and saw Buffy kneeling down in front of her, looking more worried than she had ever seen her, even when Mom was sick.

"It's okay," she said, reaching out to touch Buffy's arm. "Actually, it's more than okay. Guess what I just saw?"

"Something good?" Buffy said. "Um...aren't the Powers That Be supposed to send you visions of bad things happening?"

"Oh, yeah, someone's going to sacrifice a virgin to a demon," Dawn said, waving her hand in dismissal. "But I think we'll have time to stop it - the sacrifice will be on the big star that's on one of the hills above Bethlehem. And it's only lit around Christmas."

"Okay, but still not seeing the good here," Buffy said.

"I do," Willow said, giving Dawn a one-armed hug. "If Dawn's seeing visions in Bethlehem, and she's Angel's link to the Powers That Be, that must mean they want Angel in Bethlehem."

"And that means you're coming to Bethlehem, too," Buffy said, grabbing both of Dawn's hands, pulling her up, and twirling her around the dressing room. "I think this calls for the biggest chocolate shake in the history of chocolate shakes."

"Yummy," Dawn said. "But make sure you get that top. Now you really will have Angel to impress."

Buffy stuck her tongue out at her, but Dawn didn't care.


	11. Chapter 11

Dawn looked out of the window of the van Giles had rented, trying to see her new home town. She couldn't see much, because the sun had recently set. They were driving through residential streets with nice houses, which surprised her, because they'd just left the airport. But then, the airport was pretty small; they'd been lucky to get a direct flight from L.A., and even then, Angel and Spike had had to travel in large boxes in the cargo hold. They hadn't been happy about it, and Dawn wasn't looking forward to their tempers when they finally came out.

But she was looking forward to seeing her new home. Giles hadn't been able to find a hotel or other appropriate building large enough for them all to live in, so he'd had to settle for buying several houses on a small private street. He hadn't even been able to buy all of the ones on the street, which should make things interesting when they're all heading off to patrol or coming back covered in demon slime. So Dawn was going to be living in a house with Buffy, Willow, and Xander, which would be weird and fun all at the same time. She was definitely glad she wasn't going to be living with Illyria, who had freaked them all out by showing up as Fred when they'd left for the airport. She was so completely different when she was Fred; she'd been unbelievably sweet the whole plane ride, helping the stewardesses put things in the overhead bins (she'd still had Illyria's strength) and never complaining about how long the flight was, like the rest of them were doing. By now, Dawn just wanted to get as far away from her as possible. Illyria and Spike were going to be living in a small house together, and Dawn had no idea how Spike would manage that.

The van turned down a tree-lined street, dark except for the lights shining from the windows of the houses on either side. From what Dawn could see, they looked like houses you might see anywhere in suburbia, though there was something about them that told her she wasn't in California anymore. The tree branches almost met over the middle of the street, and Dawn could see Buffy, in the front seat next to Giles, looking around for potential ambush points. She rolled the window down and took a deep sniff.

"It smells nice," she said. "Green."

Xander, who had been craning his neck to look around out his own window, turned to her and smiled. "It does seem like a nice town," he said.

"Too Stepford," Buffy said. "All the houses look the same."

"They were most likely all built around the same time," Giles said. "Don't worry; our houses don't look at all alike."

He slowed down and turned onto the private drive. There were six mailboxes next to the turnoff; apparently, the mailman didn't have to deliver directly to the houses on this street. There were large yards on either side of the drive, and then Giles pulled into what was almost a small parking lot on the left of the drive.

"We're here," he said.

Everyone piled out of the van and stood looking up at the white house with black shutters that stood in front of them until the other van pulled up behind them and Faith jumped out, followed by Willow, Illyria, and Gunn.

"D'you see that weird-ass tower on that house over there?" Faith said. "I'm not living there, am I?"

Everyone turned and looked where she pointed. Dawn had to admit that the square tower did look a little strange, especially on a house that small.

"No," Giles said. "You're not living there, and do please keep your voice down. "That was one of the houses I wasn't able to buy - the owners wouldn't sell."

Faith snorted. "It can't have been because of that tower," she said.

"Actually, it was, at least in part," Giles said. "They have recently added that addition to their house." He studied it for a moment, and then shrugged. "There's no accounting for taste, is there?"

Xander had walked a little way down the private drive, but now returned.

"Please tell me I'm living there," he said, pointing at the next house down. "Whoever designed that porch is a genius."

Giles shook his head. "That's the other house with an owner who wouldn't sell. And actually, the same architects designed both the porch and the tower."

"Huh," Xander said.

"If we're not living in those two houses, where are we living?" Dawn said. She was still feeling uncomfortable from the plane ride, and really didn't feel like standing around discussing architecture. Especially in the dark.

Buffy and Willow had been standing, arms linked, looking up at the white house.

"It's this one," Willow said. "Isn't it? This feels like us."

Giles gave her an odd look, but nodded. "Yes, you four will be living in this house, which was the original farmhouse when this whole area was farmland. Faith and myself, along with the three young Slayers and one Watcher trainee, will live in the next house over, which was originally the barn. I understand it's been completely rennovated," he added in a dry tone at Faith's horrified look. "Spike and Illyria have the house past the one with the porch, and Angel and Gunn have the one past that. And speaking of Angel and Spike, Xander and Gunn, will you come along and help me unload them?"

Gunn snorted. "Two Slayers along, and the poor weak men are stuck doing the heavy lifting."

"Who're you calling weak?" Xander said, mock-punching him on the arm.

Giles stared at them for a moment, and then rubbed his eyes.

"I do apologize," he said. "Buffy and Faith?"

In the end, they all piled back into the vans and drove to the house Spike and Illyria would share. Illyria, who had turned back into herself on the ride from the airport and hadn't said another word, took Spike's container out of the van all by herself. Giles unlocked the door to the house and everyone walked around from room to room, except Illyria, who put Spike's container down on the floor of the sunken living room and opened it up. The tour of the house was punctuated by Spike's mild cursing and complaining, along with slurping. Faith's van had stopped at a butcher's on the way from the airport, and though Spike complained about the taste of the blood, he sure drank it quickly enough.

The house was a small ranch, but it had a swimming pool out back, where Dawn suspected she'd be spending a lot of time. It also had, instead of a garage, a strange room with a padded floor and heavy curtains on the windows.

"The people living here weren't vampires, were they?" Dawn asked.

Giles shook his head. "When I toured the house, there was a fancy car there," he said.

"Really?" Xander said. "What kind?"

"I have absolutely no idea," Giles said. "It was orange."

Angel and Gunn's place was also a ranch, but it was slightly bigger and didn't have a pool or weird car room. Angel was much quieter when he got out of his container than Spike had been, but just as hungry, judging by how much he was slurping, too. Giles suggested that they all take the rest of the evening to settle in and meet again in the morning to discuss strategy.

"You'll have to do it without me and Spike," Angel said, looking glum. "No tunnel system here."

"Yes, I know," Giles said, and he actually sounded sorry. "There just weren't any big enough places for sale in town where there are tunnels. The people who built this town obviously weren't aware that a Hellmouth would someday come here."

"You mean they weren't insane warlocks determined to become true demons," Willow said.

"No, they were Moravians," Giles said, which was obviously amusing to him, though none of the rest of them got it. "But we can meet here," he added, "if Spike wouldn't mind using a blanket to get here."

Spike rolled his eyes, but nodded. Dawn noticed that Giles hadn't suggested that Angel be the one using the blanket. They decided on a time, and then finally, it was timme to go to her new home. Giles and Faith headed into their house, which was a nice-looking shingled one set close to the road with a large yard behind and to the side of it. Dawn knew she'd want to go all over it soon - it did still look somewhat like a barn, but in a good way - but right now, she really wanted to see where she'd be living. Buffy unlocked their front door and flicked on the light as she entered, the rest of them trailing after. The entered into a good-sized front hall with a door leading into a large room opening off on either side. There was a staircase off to one side and another door directly in front of them. They peeked into the empty rooms on either side - both had fireplaces - and went through the third door into the kitchen. It was large, airy, and had French doors leading out onto a patio and a large yard beyond. Dawn, Buffy, and Willow just stood there, pretending to look at the counters and appliances, while Xander poked around and found another empty room through a door on one side and steps leading down to a basement, which he said was large, completely finished, and would make a good training room.

"Good," Buffy said. She sounded exhausted.

"Let's go see our rooms," Dawn said, though it took several more minutes for them to actually head upstairs. She wasn't quite sure why they were all so tired, since it wasn't nearly as late by California time, but she supposed it was jet lag. There were four bedrooms upstairs, and there was a little argument as to who really didn't want the biggest one, but eventually the girls ganged up on Xander and made him take it. Dawn ended up with a pretty blue bedroom that looked out over the private road and the house with the weird tower, but she liked it anyway, because it had a window seat and a large closet. She and Buffy would be sharing a bathroom again, but at least it was just the two of them, not lots of Potentials. Dawn started unpacking, but gave up midway through just her suitcase, dug out her pajamas, brushed her teeth, and crawled into her sleeping bag. Everything would keep until tomorrow.


End file.
